martedì 11 maggio 2010

Today I wanted to show you this quite easy but very tasty dish we call "Gnocchi alla Romana" (Semolina dumplings). This can be a very great comfort dish, and it will be even better when warmed in the microwave or in the oven with some more cheese on!

All you need for this yummy dish is:

1 lt milk

250 gr semolina

salt

50 gr butter

some grated parmesan cheese (about a cup)

some more butter ( about 50 gr)

How to make it:

Boil milk, and pour all the semolina in. Cook it, and stir it until it looks dry and homogeneous.

Add 50 gr of butter, keep on stirring. Pour it all on a wet tray/big cheese plate or just the table (make sure it's wet!!!)

Spread out the mixture on the table, 1 cm thick.Then, with a glass, cut some discs out.

Put some butter in a casserole, place the discs side by side, add some more butter, sprinkle on some grated parmesan and add another layer of semolina discs, repeating the process.

Bake in the oven at 200°C or grill them, until it becomes brown and the surface looks crispy.

domenica 9 maggio 2010

I promised you all particularly to Camp Stanhope blogger that I would have posted this recipe, since you have seen it on hubby birthday post! It is an easy sponge cake and a very light one. All you need is...LOVE! as usual, when you are in the kitchen and some other ingredients..Let's see them!

7 eggs

200 g sugar

100 g potato flour

100 g flour

a pinch of baking powder

How to make it:

Separate the eggs yolks and whites in two different bowls.

Add the sugar to the bowl containing the egg yolks, and mix it with a wooden spoon, until it becomes creamy and very soft.

Beat the whites to stiff peaks.

Incorporate the whites to the yolks.

Sieve the flour and the potato flour, and slowly add the baking powder.

Happy Mother's day to every mum and mum-to-be! To celebrate, I thought I could make a cake. I hope you like it, because I am going to post the recipe this evening. This cake is the same I prepared for my husband's birthday and it's relatively easy to make, very good and light ( it has no butter!).

I just realised that I like to decorate cakes and decided to take some time for it. I have also coloured the cream and frosted some rose's petals. The writing is made with chocolate, and I have added a ribbon to make it look like a book. I hope you like it!

giovedì 6 maggio 2010

Rocket pesto is a very tasty yet light pesto which I like to make during these warm days of spring...Summer is still a bit far this year I think, because days are a little bit cold and rainy, but weather forecast says we'll have better weather from tomorrow...today it was sunny too, hope it holds!

But now, I am going to give you the recipe of this very easy sauce..All you need is:

1 garlic clove

1 glass of extra virgin olive oil

50 gr Parmesan cheese (grated)

50 gr Pecorino cheese (grated)

50 gr pine nuts

100 gr rocket

salt

It is really easy to make, you just have to take your mixer and...

Set aside some rocket leaves and pine nuts, to garnish your dish ( I only used the leaves)

Put all the ingredients in the mixer + half glass of oil, and start it at the low speed.

Add the last half of the olive oil and mix at high speed.

Garnish your pasta with the leaves and the pine nuts and of course the sauce!

Enjoy!

Of course I used the rocket I had in my plot, it's so good! Here's the pesto:

sabato 1 maggio 2010

1st of May is a very important day in Cagliari. It is the day in which we celebrate the festival of St.Ephysius, the patron saint of Sardinia and Pisa, a Tuscany city.

Nothing much is known about his life, apart from his birth place, Antiochia(Turkey) and his martyrdom place, Nora (Sardinia) in the year 303 A.C., under Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus empire. He eventually fighted with the emperor's troups and persecuted Christians, but after a telltale sign - he saw a cross in the sky and heard a voice blaming him for his persecutions- he decided to convert to Christian religion. He is important in Sardinia, particuarly in Cagliari for different reasons: the main reason why he is celebrated with such a huge festival and religious event is that Sardinians asked him to rescue them from pestilence in 1656, May 1st.

The second reason why he is celebrated on another day,the Angelus Monday, is due to the pray Sardinians did to St. Ephysius in order to be released from French revolutionaries in 1793.

The biggest event is the one of the 1st May, and it's been celebrated for over 350 years. Every year many tourists come to see this beautiful festival which is truly breath taking, it is also one of the biggest Mediterranean festivals, because it involves the biggest number of towns which parade showing off their beautiful traditional clothes.Everyone takes part in it, from men to women, young to old people. It is a joyful, religious and cultural event that everyone should really see once in his/her life. So I thought I could show you some pitcures of it, the pictures are not mine this time, cos I haven't gone there this year, but I have taken them from the web, from the website "blog del sole"(a wonderful photo-blog, by the way!)